Germania was once described by the Romans as a region lacking gold and silver veins, but since a century ago, the Saxons have debunked this ancient assertion, and today the region has become the source of Germanic miners, from whom the ore is roasted, crushed, washed, and then smelted and separated, and the resulting gold and silver flow into the hands of Henry IV, where the Royal Mint is minted into the Reichsmark to feed the army.

As a result, the invasion of the Anglo-Danish alliance had posed a serious threat to Henry IV's finances, and more disturbingly, the King of England declared that the invasion was to regain the territory of Woolfhild, the heir to the House of Billund and the Crown Princess of England, and to liberate the northern frontier of the empire from the apostates.

After the extinction of the Ottonian royal family of Saxony, the southern border of Saxony remained the center of power of the new Sarian emperors, and the scale of their northern inheritance from the Lyudolf royal family was much larger than their own old possessions in the Middle Rhine and Main regions, for the Salian royal family, Goslar was Charlemagne's Aachen, and Saxony was their home (patria) compared to Franconia, which is why this region was called the "emperor's kitchen" within the empire.

However, unlike its predecessors, the Sallian royal family lacked a blood connection to the local Saxon family and was far less rooted than the descendants of Henry the Bird Catcher, whose only blood relatives in Saxony were the descendants of his grandmother, Empress Gisela, the Meissenbenberg Egbert of the House of Bruno. For fourteen years, however, Egbert and his son were enemies of the Emperor, and his allies included Dietrich of Cartlenburg and Adalbert of Barenstedt. After the rebellion of Magnus, Duke of Saxony of the House of Billund, was put down, these distant relatives who had been enemies of the royal family were fortunate enough to be pardoned by Henry IV, more because the victors had no choice, as the emperor's suspicions about these men were evident in the demolition of his residence and the stationing of more Swabian ministeriales.

Now, the Imperial army has turned to Bavaria and Swabia, and the north is leaderless.

Rodrigo wasted not a day, he quickly broke through Lüneburg, which was garrisoned by seventy Swabian knights, and then marched from the left bank of the Elbe to the Harz Mountains, with the Bolov cavalry in high helmets and armor at the front, and these skilled Cuman mercenaries to open the way, and the garrison left by Henry IV in the north was about to collapse at the touch of a button, and at each fortress there were countless ballistas that made the sound of strings, slides and destrings, and the occasional whistling flame through the air. Six years ago, many of the royal fortresses that had formided the Saxon rebels, including large stone forts such as Harzburg, Saxony-Steinburg, and Heimburg, fell. Bishop Banono, a close friend and important minister of the emperor, hurriedly complained of illness and declared neutrality, and the coalition forces gave up attacking the fortifications of the abbey of Ibau, where the bishop was located.

The recent destruction of the north by the Imperial army was almost equivalent to clearing half of the duchy for the English in advance, and most of the remaining local lords chose to wait and see, Meissenbenberg Egbert and Count Ludwig of Thuringia were the only remaining nobles in Saxony-Thuringia, but the former had Grechen Castle razed by the emperor, and the latter seemed more interested in expanding into Saxony Prussia territory again.

"It's a miracle!" Robert Mallett slapped his face as he climbed up the stone corridor with Count Rodrigo to the top of Harz's main castle, "Who would have thought that so much land would fall so quickly, how could Henry and Rudolph fight for so long in the first place?" ”

"Rudolph doesn't have as many siege engines as we have, and iron-hulled rockets." Rodrigo, Earl of Pembroke caressed the iron-clad ash wood handrails, and the delicate sealskin gloves rustled, "Besides, there are almost no guards in these lands. But let's not forget that the countries we are attacking are just as militarily powerful as we are. The Greeks said that an army invading the enemy's territory must always be vigilant. ”

"Where to hit next?" Robert Mallett was already gearing up, as if the Count's warning were a dream, and the rich plains of the Main and the mineral-rich mountains of Bohemia were just around the corner.

"Don't go anywhere, we'll hold a ceremony for the princess at once." Rodrigo replied without hesitation, "This is the first priority given by Your Majesty. ”

"The Germanic people are coming?"

"The people from Cologne and Trier are already on their way, so let's go and preside over the negotiations."

"How?"

"Find out their prices, I've heard that if the price is right, even the crown is not unavailable." The Count smiled mockingly as he observed the defensive holes in the wall.

"What about my punishment?"

"Repentance and fasting? Do you care a lot about this kind of detail? ”

"Honestly, I don't care more than those infidels." Robert was referring to the group of Cuman mercenaries, "But if I were to lick the bells of a bunch of fat pigs, I would rather confess to my lord." ”

"The king needs you more than the Lord, my lord!" The Count interrupted unceremoniously.

The latest reality is that the struggle has shifted to another battlefield as the offensive reaches the line of termination that the king speaks of. It is not advisable to continue south until the duchess status is settled, because going south means not only going deep into the enemy's hinterland, but also moving away from the coast.

The rapid advance of the English was shocking enough, at least enough for Archbishop Sigwin and Archbishop Eggilbert of Cologne, who basically stopped participating in the war after the "Holy Truce" throughout the empire, and like the "master builder" Bishop Banno of Osnabrück, the princes of the church were extremely lacking in the desire to expand by force after stabilizing the interior, and preferred to use peaceful means to grab personal interests, Edgar knew this situation well, so at the same time as the military strategy, Through the Duke of Lower Lorraine, Godfrey de Bouillon, he revealed to them his diplomatic intentions.

The people of Cologne had a long tradition of trading with England, and the frequent exchanges between the two sides made the pro-British forces within the episcopal city unusually large, just as the Slavs on the coast of Wende and the English occupying Lübeck gradually forged a close relationship, and the citizens of Cologne, who had made their fortune through entrepot trade, were naturally more inclined to maintain friendship with the British. Bishop Sigwyn could not easily alienate the English people against the will of the people if he did not want to be expelled from the city where his pacumbery was located, as Bishop of Cambray did. Other Imperial princes who didn't have similar concerns might have offered more, but Edgar was confident that he would definitely be able to outbid Henry IV.

The German princes did not realize at this time that England, which controlled the trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, actually possessed the equivalent of the North Sea Empire at Canute, and that the Normans had provided London with the manpower to conquer the wars, and that if the King of England was allowed to establish a series of Anglo-Norman fiefs in Saxony, a "Normandy" within an empire would quickly take shape.

All the elements of violence in the North have been unwittingly controlled by one man, and this power, combined with the emerging sea power, has the potential to open up an empire, because the world is divided into two parts: land and sea, and while England's warships roam the seas as they please, the continent of Europe is as if it were unguarded. In addition, the expansion of the sea will increase the courage of the attackers and the frustration of the defenders. Thus, when the British army attacked the empire from the sea, dark memories of the salt and iron of the northerners flooded the hearts of the lords near and far almost simultaneously, and in the minds of people in this era, the wolves on the sea represented the ruthlessness and patience that never changed, and the first thing that thought of humans in the face of such predators was always flight.

When Henry IV learned that on the day of the fall of Goslar, the soldiers were burning the equipment and houses of the Bavarian rebels, and that the Emperor had hoped to send reinforcements westward to fight the Zeringen with his son-in-law, Frederick, Duke of Swabia, when he heard that his beloved palace had become the spoils of the enemy.

He came to the nearest monastery, appeared before the golden-braided princess Yeph Plaxia, and before the woman could utter her first exclamation, he began to swing his cane, and struck her shackled arms, then her thin shoulders and broad hips, until her lower body was so hard at the bottom of her robe that it was like iron in the fire, and thrust horribly into the furnace between her legs. Where the emperor couldn't see, tears quietly fell to the upper lip, and in front of this man, the slightest breath could bring more torment.